[ **up: [[Mammals]] | [[Rodents]] | [[Cricetidae (Family)]]** ] --- # Hamsters | Cricetinae (Subfamily) > Hamsters are rodents (order Rodentia) belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae, which contains 19 species classified in seven genera. They have become established as popular small pets.[3] The best-known species of hamster is the golden or Syrian hamster (*Mesocricetus auratus*), which is the type most commonly kept as a pet. Other hamster species commonly kept as pets are the three species of dwarf hamster, Campbell’s dwarf hamster (*Phodopus campbelli*), the winter white dwarf hamster (*Phodopus sungorus*) and the Roborovski hamster (*Phodopus roborovskii*).[^1] --- ## Taxonomy - **[[Life (Biology)]]** - **[[Eukaryotes|Eukaryota (Domain)]]** - **[[Animals|Animalia (Kingdom)]]** - [[Chordates|Chordata (Phylum)]] - [[Mammals|Mammalia (Class)]] - [[Therians|Theria (Subclass)]] - [[Placentals|Eutheria (Infraclass)]] - [[Rodents|Rodentia (Order)]] - [[Cricetidae (Family)]] - [[Hamsters|Cricetinae (Subfamily)]] <small>HAMSTERS</small> --- ## Reproduction ### Pheromones [[2025-0321. 'Male hamsters only respond to female pheromone if they are well fed, giving them sufficiently high blood testosterone levels in their hypothalamus.'|'Male hamsters only respond to female pheromone if they are well fed, giving them sufficiently high blood testosterone levels in their hypothalamus.']][^2] [^1]: ‘Hamster’, *Wikipedia*, updated 19 February 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamster. [^2]: Tristram D. Wyatt, ‘[[Wyatt. ‘Pheromones’, 2017.|Pheromones]]’, *Current Biology*, vol. 27, issue 15 (7 August 2017), p. R740.